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Raindrop: All-in-One Bookmark Manager

198 points| memorable | 3 years ago |raindrop.io

78 comments

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[+] joe8756438|3 years ago|reply
For me collecting bookmarks is part of a larger activity that involves any information I want to gather for use later on. Bookmarks is usually about assembling a reading list or collecting resources on a topic. I used to think the larger activity was note-taking, but I'm realizing that's not really it either. The activity is something very general like "collecting information". Collecting, notes, bookmarks, quotes, transactions, events, equations, etc.

I built a service to solve this problem [0], but I'm not sure how to communicate what it is. Does it collect and organize bookmarks, yes. But I also use it to track of my spending, do my budget, keep a work log, make financial projections, manage tasks, send myself reminders and digests of all the above content.

[0] https://tatatap.com

[+] veg|3 years ago|reply
I clicked the link because I want something like what you mentioned. But your landing page showed a programming language and you lost me.

And I'm a developer.

You're not selling a syntax. You're selling a solution. The homepage should be selling me on what you're solving, not the syntax to do it.

[+] vorpalhex|3 years ago|reply
This is something approaching a general personal assistant. A few notes:

My immediate worry is that this is not general enough. A tool like this is one I really want to integrate into my other tools - Obsidian, PushOver, etc.

Pricing was an immediate turnoff for me. The demo auto-converts and I don't trust you enough to go for that.

It seems like my data is very locked in. Again, not enough trust here.

[+] sph|3 years ago|reply
Your comment reminds me of the "Collections" feature in Microsoft Edge, where you can collect a group of related URLs and notes together. I haven't used Edge in a while, but I recall I used it a few times and it was a better experience than the regular "bookmark something and forget about it until it bit rots" which I've never been fond of.

Now I wonder, can I have "Collections" on Firefox?

[+] charles_f|3 years ago|reply
I used it for a year until maybe 12 months ago. The one thing that made me leave was that everything was juat slow enough to irritate me. Not crazy slow, but not very responsive either. When looking for a bookmark in a folder and each folder takes a couple seconds to load, then your browse becomes tedious.

I like that there's a good export function though, being able to be non committal to a tool is a prime feature IMO

[+] artdigital|3 years ago|reply
That's the reason why I stopped using it too. It looked pretty but I didn't feel productive because of the laggy-ness

I shilled this yesterday as well, but anybox (https://anybox.cc) might be for you, that's what I am using currently. It's native on iOS/Mac, syncs with iCloud and is very keyboard centric with Command Palette, Quick Open, etc.

No connected cloud SaaS subscription service (though there is an iAP with one-time purchase option) or other bells&whistles, just a good simple native app that does what I want it to do

[+] lf-non|3 years ago|reply
Have been using raindrop for a couple months. Maybe it varies by collection size or location, but I rarely experience a request that takes more than a sec to complete.
[+] rnmp|3 years ago|reply
Shameless plug but I’m working on a visual organization and bookmarking tool and feedback and input from someone like you would be crucial!

https://www.bleep.is

[+] myth_drannon|3 years ago|reply
I also stopped because the extension was slow and unusable if you have a lot of tags
[+] rg111|3 years ago|reply
I used Notion for some months, and this is why I stopped using it. It is too slow.

Edit: Notion has no one-click exit options. That's also a bummer.

[+] exentrich|3 years ago|reply
Raindrop servers located in Germany. Response time can be a slow if you too far away geographically. But we use caching intensively so it should not be a problem. Can you check again please?
[+] amitgupta6|3 years ago|reply
Yes. It is slow. This is precisely the reason I stopped using it.
[+] vorpalhex|3 years ago|reply
This is fantastic.

Open source apps? Check

Reasonable ways to get my data out? Check

Sane pricing with sufficient demo? Check

This app is going to be my go to example for how to sell an app well.

[+] oshout|3 years ago|reply
Raindrop snapshots and indexes most things you bookmark with it. It also has an API and integrations with ITTT.

There are desktop and mobile apps as well.

I used to live by chromes syncing bookmark feature but it wasn't always easy to get content bookmarked in chrome on my phone especially.

Now, anything which can be shared on my phone (with the share button) I can send to bookmark and be done with it.

My biggest gripe is that the search is direct and doesn't provide much wiggle room in finding what you're looking for. Super handy though if you can remember a key phrase from the article.

[+] exentrich|3 years ago|reply
Hi! I’m the creator of Raindrop. Feel free to ask anything!
[+] arintoker|3 years ago|reply
This is a great bookmark manager. I have used many other solutions in the past and Raindrop provides the proper functionality you would expect from a bookmark manager after years of use I have never ran into any limitations or frustrations.
[+] simscitizen|3 years ago|reply
I use Raindrop but really wish they had support for share extensions in their macOS app. That way I could get rid of their toolbar button and just use the share button instead on Safari.
[+] exentrich|3 years ago|reply
Native macOS app is on the way! Hope to complete it this year
[+] oweiler|3 years ago|reply
For me it's much more effective to bookmark blog posts I've found interesting to re-read later than to Store things I may eventually read (which rarely happens).
[+] janandonly|3 years ago|reply
I largely stopped bookmarking stuff altogether, and now simply save a website as a PDF file in a folder structure that is ordered by broad subjects.

Works fine for over a decade now.

Bonus: on MacOS you can search through stored pdf files very easily.

[+] stereoradonc|3 years ago|reply
Raindrop offers best in class bookmarking. 1) Highlights on webpages. 2) IFTTT integration. 3) Permanent archives for paid users. 4) RSS feeds for bookmark collection. Brilliant and HIGHLY recommended!
[+] drcongo|3 years ago|reply
I'd be down with this if it used the OS sync (iCloud / Google Drive etc) and wasn't a subscription. As it stands, it looks like it charges monthly just to use a sync that I can't trust.
[+] leodriesch|3 years ago|reply
I am using Raindrop and it syncs seamlessly between all my devices despite not ever paying for it.
[+] exentrich|3 years ago|reply
You can sync with as many devices you want. No such limitation even in Free. You can also connect sync to any other service through IFTTT for free.

But yes backup to Dropbox & Google Drive is premium feature.

[+] account-5|3 years ago|reply
I just use Zotero for bookmarks. No need to worry about deadlinks (seemingly charged for in this app) as a copy it taken at time of ingestion.